Preference for school involvement strategies by mothers of at-risk and peer-model kindergarten children PublicDeposited

Descriptions

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe
the attitudes and preferences regarding home/school
involvement strategies of 23 mothers of kindergarten
students who had been identified as at-risk for failure in
school and 18 mothers of kindergarten students who had been
designated as peer models.
Data were collected through semi-structured
interviews. Chi square and t-tests were used at the .05
level to determine if there were significant differences
between the responses of the two groups.
Respondents were asked to express their preferences for
programs and services designed to support families,
potential use of these programs and services, views
concerning the importance of different home/school
involvement strategies, comfort level with different
home/school involvement strategies, preferences for topics
for parent education, and preferences for ways of learning
about helping their children.
A significant difference was found between the two
groups regarding potential use of programs and services,
views concerning the importance of different home/school
involvement strategies, and preferences for ways of learning
about their children. Mothers of at-risk students favored
one-way communication with schools and strategies that were
not social in nature. Mothers of at-risk students showed an
interest in parent education topics which discussed general
development and family maintenance over discipline.
The mean age at the birth of the first child for
mothers of at-risk students was 19.4 years while the mean
age at the birth of the first child of mothers of peer model
students was 24.3 years.